1,2-Diaminoethane is an important intermediate in the preparation of beta-blockers, thiadiazoles and imidazole derivatives. A number of methods describe the preparation of 1,2-diaminoethane but as yet, none provide a completely satisfactory procedure. A good procedure for the preparation of 1,2-diaminoethane system is reported in U.S. Pat. No. 2,408,171. In that procedure, 2-methyl-2-nitropropanol was allowed to react with 20 fold excess of liquid ammonia, and the resulting mixture was hydrogenated at 1100 psi to give 71% yeild of 2-methyl-1,2-diaminoethane. ##STR2##